58 MIDDLE EAST POLICY, VOL. XII, NO. 4, WINTER 2005 IRAN AND AMERICA: IS RAPPROCHEMENT FINALLY POSSIBLE? Mark N. Katz Dr. Katz is a professor of government and politics at George Mason University. I ranian-American relations, as is well known, have been notoriously poor ever since the 1979 revolution toppled the shah and brought the Islamic Republic to power. All efforts to improve the relationship have foundered. A rap- prochement may seem highly unlikely at present when Washington and Tehran are so sharply divided, especially over the Iranian nuclear program. Yet, despite these differences, recent conversations that I had in Iran indicate to me that enough common interests have emerged to finally make rapprochement possible between Washington and Tehran. Let me explain. I was invited to give lectures both on revolution and on Russian-Iranian relations in Iran in May 2005 by Abbas Maleki, director of the International Institute for Caspian Studies. I had met Dr. Maleki in Tehran in March 1992 (my only previous visit to Iran), when I participated in a conference held by the Institute for Politi- cal and International Studies (IPIS) on “The Transformation of the Former USSR and its Implications for the Third World.” Maleki, one of the keynote speakers at the conference, was then deputy foreign minister for research and training. In the years since then, we have had occasional contact. I sent him a copy of my book Revolutions and Revolutionary Waves shortly after its publication in 1997. In 2003, we corresponded about readings on revolution since we were both teaching classes on the subject. Then, in early 2005, he invited me to lecture in Iran. I instantly agreed. I arrived in Tehran late at night on Sunday, May 15, and departed early in the morning on Thursday, May 19. In the three intervening days, I had a very full schedule. On Monday, May 16, Maleki held a lunch for me at the Caspian Institute that was also attended by four others (two editors, an official and another scholar). That evening, I gave a lecture at the Caspian Institute on “Is Revolution Predict- able?” to an audience that included Iranian Foreign Ministry officials, military officers, journalists, scholars, foreign embassy representatives, oil company officials and graduate students. On Tuesday, May 17, I gave lectures on “Iranian-Russian Relations,” first at the Center for Strategic Research (an organi- zation formally headed by Hashemi Rafsanjani and linked to the Expediency Council), and then again at the Institute for © 2005, The Author Journal Compilation © 2005, Middle East Policy Council